System for monitoring audible tones in a multiple planar chassis

ABSTRACT

Aspects for monitoring audible tones indicative of operational status of each planar in a multiple planar chassis are described. Included in the aspects is the monitoring of a speaker channel of each planar of a plurality of planars in a common chassis for state changes of beep tones. An operational status of a specific planar emitting the beep tones is identified based on the state changes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Under 35 USC §120, this application is a continuation application andclaims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/762,009, filed Jan. 21, 2004, entitled “Method for Monitoring AudibleTones in a Multiple Planar Chassis”, all of which is incorporated hereinby reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to monitoring audible tones indicative ofoperational status of each planar in a multiple planar chassis.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Audible alerts are a common mechanism for personal computers to relaytheir operating status to the end user. These alerts are typically knownas “beep codes” and are commonly used when the system has failed to bootduring power on self test (POST)/BIOS execution, and the system wasunable to display a visible warning to the local monitor. For example, asystem with no memory installed will fail with a NOMEM error, which isassigned to a 3-3-3 beep code (i.e., 3 rapid beeps, pause 3 rapid beeps,pause, 3 rapid beeps).

While these beep codes provide an indication of operating status, aproblem exists on blade-type systems, such as BladeCenter from IBMCorporation, where multiple, independent planar or server systems residein a common mechanical housing. If a planar in such a housing were tofail to boot during POST, for example, the standard audible tonealerting the user to the failure either would not be heard or could notbe resolved to the one failing planar out of those installed.

Accordingly, a need exists for a mechanism to propagate the audiblealert in a manner that allows monitoring and management of all of theplanars within the housing. The present invention addresses such a need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects for monitoring audible tones indicative of operational status ofeach planar in a multiple planar chassis are described. Included in theaspects is the monitoring of a speaker channel of each planar of aplurality of planars in a common chassis for state changes of beeptones. An operational status of a specific planar emitting the beeptones is identified based on the state changes.

Through the present invention, propagation of an audible alert on anindividual planar occurs in a manner that allows monitoring andmanagement of an entire chassis of planars. These and other advantageswill become readily apparent from the following detailed description andaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of an example of a blade-type chassisenvironment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block flow diagram of an analog-to-digitalconverter handler routine that includes the monitoring of the presentinvention.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate block flow diagrams of aspects of a beep statehandler in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to monitoring audible tones indicative ofoperational status of each planar in a multiple planar chassis. Thefollowing description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill inthe art to make and use the invention and is provided in the context ofa patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to thepreferred embodiment and the generic principles and features describedherein will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, thepresent invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiment shownbut is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principlesand features described herein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of an example of a blade-type environmentwhere three independent system planars 10, 12, and 14 reside in a commonmechanical housing/chassis 16. With current technology, the standardspeaker output signals are wired directly to speakers 18, 20, and 22 onthe planars 10, 12, and 14. The speaker output signals are typicallylocated on the planar south bridge chipset 24, 26, or 28 (e.g.,Serverworks CSB5) and derived from a programmable timer (e.g., legacy8253) of the chipset. Also included on the planars 10, 12, and 14 aremanagement microcontrollers 30, 32, and 34 (e.g., Renesas (formerlyHitachi) H8S-2148) which includes firmware to monitor planar voltagesfrom analog inputs as voltage sources, such as for various conditions(temperature, fans, etc.) on the planars, and forward the appropriatewarnings to the central chassis management module 36.

The present invention extends the activity of the analog-to-digitalconverter firmware of the microcontrollers 30, 32, and 34 to detecton-to-off and off-to-on transitions of the speaker data input. FIG. 2illustrates a block flow diagram of an analog-to-digital converterhandler routine that includes the enhancements of the present invention.As is standardly done, a first analog channel is selected (step 40), theanalog channel data is converted to digital (step 42), and the data isaccumulated (step 44). When the accumulator is full (as determined viastep 46), the data is averaged (step 48), and the accumulator is reset(step 50). The enhancement to the handler routine in accordance with thepresent invention commences with detection of whether the data is from aspeaker channel (step 52). If not, the process repeats after selectionof a next channel (step 54).

When the data is from a speaker channel, a check of the data is made todetermine whether it is beep state change data (via step 56), and ifnot, the process continues with a next channel (step 54). When it isbeep state change data, such as may occur during a POST routine, a beepstate handler routine proceeds (step 58), as described in more detailwith reference to the block flow diagram of FIG. 3.

The beep handler routine processes the on/off and off/on transitions andrecords the transitions with the assistance of a timer. Each off/ontransition can be used to determine the duration of the beep to identifythe type of beep (i.e., short or long). Thus, as shown in FIG. 3, thebeep handler determines if the beep is in an OFF state (step 60), and ifso, a timer is started (step 62). The process then returns to await dataindicative of a next beep state change. Once the beep state change datais not in a beep OFF state (step 60 is negative), an off-to-ontransition has occurred, and the process continues to indicate theelapsed time of the timer (step 64). An indication of the type of beep,short or long, based on the amount of elapsed time is appended to a beeplist (step 66) and the process returns to await data indicative of anext beep state change.

Referring now to the block flow diagram of FIG. 4, once all of the beeplist data has been collected, the beep list data is converted to a textmessage (step 68) and is sent to an event log of the chassis managementmodule (step 70). The beep list is then reset (step 72) and the timer isturned off (step 74).

With the collection and reporting of the beep data by the presentinvention, better identification of a problem of an individual planarwithin the chassis is achieved. Further, this identification allows forbetter monitoring of different entities, such as POST, diagnostic andmanufacturing utilities, that utilize the planar speaker to signal theoperating status. In addition, the present invention provides theability to propagate the operational status to the central managementmodule even in those situations, such as I2C failure, where othermechanisms are unable provide such information.

From the foregoing, it will be observed that numerous variations andmodifications may be effected without departing from the spirit andscope of the novel concept of the invention. It is to be understood thatno limitation with respect to the specific methods and apparatusillustrated herein is intended or should be inferred. It is, of course,intended to cover by the appended claims all such modifications as fallwithin the scope of the claims.

1. A system for monitoring audible tones indicative of operationalstatus of each planar in a multiple planar chassis, the systemcomprising: a chassis; a plurality of planars contained within thechassis, each of the plurality of planars including a speaker outputthat emits beep tones and each planar monitoring the beep tones forstate changes, wherein each planar includes a management controller formonitoring the speaker output, wherein an operational status of eachplanar based on the state changes is identified; and a chassismanagement module within the chassis and coupled to each planar; andwherein the management microcontroller provides the state changes as atext message to an event log of the chassis management module.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the management microcontroller utilizes atimer to detect a duration of the beep tones.
 3. The system of claim 1wherein the state changes further comprise off-to-on and on-to-offtransitions of the beep tones.
 4. The system of claim 1 wherein the beeptones further comprise beep tones during a POST routine.
 5. A multipleplanar chassis, the chassis comprising: a plurality of planars, each ofthe plurality of planars including a speaker and a managementmicrocontroller, the management microcontroller monitoring signalsoutput to the speaker to detect potential fault conditions in theplanar; and a chassis management module coupled to each managementmicrocontroller and receiving data from the management microcontrollerindicative of a detected fault condition, the management microcontrollermonitors state transitions in audible beep tones.
 6. The chassis ofclaim 5 wherein the management microcontroller monitors the audible beeptones during a planar POST routine.
 7. The chassis of claim 5 whereinthe management microcontroller sends a text message to an event log ofthe chassis management module based on the state transitions.